Space Weather Update: 12/13/2015

GEMINID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is entering a stream of gravelly debris from “rock comet” 3200 Phaethon, source of annual Geminid meteor shower. Forecasters expect peak rates to occur on Dec. 13-14, when dark-sky observers in both hemispheres could see as many as 120 meteors per hour. Observing conditions will be nearly ideal because the shower peaks just a few days after the New Moon. Stay tuned for updates and, meanwhile, listen for Geminid echoes in the audio feed from our live meteor radar.

MAGNETIC STORM ON COMET CATALINA: Earth isn’t the only place with geomagnetic storms. Comets can have them, too. Such a storm appears to be in progress right now in the sinuous ion tail of Comet Catalina (C/2013 US10). Note the blobs of plasma circled in this Dec. 11th photo taken by Michael Jäger of Jauerling, Austria:

These blobs are a sign of stormy space weather. Observers of comets frequently witness plasma blobs and ‘disconnection events’ in response to CMEs and gusts of solar wind. In extreme cases, a comet’s tail can be completely torn off.

The underlying physics is akin to terrestrial geomagnetic storms. When magnetic fields around a comet bump into oppositely-directed magnetic fields in a CME, those fields can link together or “reconnect.” The resulting burst of magnetic energy can make waves, blobs, or even ruptures in the comet’s tail. When CMEs hit Earth, a similar process takes place in the planet’s magnetosphere powering, among other things, the aurora borealis.

Comet Catalina is brightening in the eastern pre-dawn sky, not yet visible to the naked eye, but an easy target for backyard telescopes. Detailed finder charts may be found in this article from Sky & Telescope. Monitoring is encouraged!Resources: 3D orbit, ephemerides. Aurora alerts: text or voice

HILLSIDE GREEN FLASH: Green flashes are rare and lovely. They are most often seen by people on beaches at the end of the day. As the sun sinks into the waves, temperature gradients in the air above the sea surface magnify tiny differences in atmospheric refraction of red and green light. Voila!–an emerald-green mirage.

Not every green flash, however, requires an ocean. This one, photographed by Daisuke Tomiyasu of Higashinada-ku, Japan, appeared over a hill:

“I saw this green flash at sunrise on Dec. 8th,” says Tomiyasu. “Once I knew this hill produced green flashes, I returned the next morning, Dec. 9th, and there it was again!”

Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains what happened: “Green flashescome in several varieties. These could be hillside flashes. When wind blows over a hilly ridge the air streamlines are pushed closer together and any small vertical temperature gradients are strengthened. The bending of sunrays across the gradients gets stronger too and maybe enough to create the mirage conditions that all green flashes need.”

Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth’s atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point–Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]

Near Earth Asteroids

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

These measurements are based on regular space weather balloon flights: learn more.

Approximately once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly “space weather balloons” to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly “down to Earth” form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Our measurements show that someone flying back and forth across the continental USA, just once, can absorb as much ionizing radiation as 2 to 5 dental X-rays. Here is the data from our latest flight, Oct. 22nd:

Radiation levels peak at the entrance to the stratosphere in a broad region called the “Pfotzer Maximum.” This peak is named after physicist George Pfotzer who discovered it using balloons and Geiger tubes in the 1930s. Radiation levels there are more than 80x sea level.

Note that the bottom of the Pfotzer Maximim is near 55,000 ft. This means that some high-flying aircraft are not far from the zone of maximum radiation. Indeed, according to the Oct 22th measurements, a plane flying at 45,000 feet is exposed to 2.79 uSv/hr. At that rate, a passenger would absorb about one dental X-ray’s worth of radiation in about 5 hours.

About Michael Silver

Former Consultant in Project Management for Information Technology, with business and nonprofit organizations, including The United Nations. Spiritually awoken in late 2012. I connected with Mother soon after. Healed myself of stage 4 lung cancer, hypothyroidism, migraines through Mother’s spiritual teachings and holistic practices. I became a spiritual counselor, holistic practitioner, spiritual investigator, writer, lead editor, video blogger, webmaster and Co-Creator of New Earth along my years in our spiritual journey. I AM devoted to the Ascension of Mother Earth, and raising the planetary consciousness into Unity Consciousness. We Are One… in Trust, Faith, Childlike Wonder, Laughter and Love. "Be Determined, Be Fearless, Be Brave, Be Love... and Most Importantly, Laugh..." Michael Silver
Spiritual Intuitive Counselor, Lead Editor, Web Master
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